Report on the Counterjihad Summit

The UK and Scandinavia Counterjihad Summit gathered last Saturday under tight security on an unusually warm spring day in Copenhagen. We met first at the Workers’ Museum (red flags and a statue of Lenin!) so that SIAD security could check everybody out. When all the participants were assembled, we followed Anders Gravers and the SIAD contingent to the meeting place a few blocks away.

There were at least twenty Danes present, several Swedes and Norwegians, with two British representatives and two American representatives of Vigilant Freedom. Paul Belien was originally scheduled to attend, but a wildcat air strike in Ostend the previous day had left him stranded in Brussels. His presence was sorely missed.

A later head count showed that fewer than half of the participants were bloggers — a significant departure from business as usual, with action-oriented people outnumbering pajama-clad gabsters like me.

After an informal mixer of chat and adult beverages, we sat down to a dinner of roast pork with red cabbage, and potatoes (flæskesteg, rødkål, and kartofler). When dinner was over, Exile — a British expatriate blogger living in Denmark who served as the coordinator for the event — gave a brief talk. Afterwards he called on the rest of the speakers.

I was first up. I had cue cards for my prepared speech, but by the time I stood up to give it, I had met and talked to everyone in the room. Also on my mind were the previous three days’ worth of discussions that had gone on at Steen’s apartment. So I was filled with new ideas, and although I started out using my cue cards, I soon abandoned them and said what was on my mind instead. Steen videotaped the whole thing, so it may be that my off-the-cuff jabber will be available at some point.

Next up was Anders Gravers, the leader of SIAD (Stop the Islamification of Denmark). Anders was nervous — he said this was the first time he had ever given a speech in English. But he did a good job, and had some important and inspiring things to say about SIAD. Here are some excerpts:

A group of people from Den Danske Forening, The Danish Society, gathered in June 2005 with a wish of creating a department of the Danish Society, Region North. But rather quickly we experienced that The Danish Society didn’t want to act in any way. All they wanted was only to talk internally about the Islam problems and publish a well-informed magazine four times a year.

But our group up north in Jutland were aware that we had to do something now if we would have any chance to save Denmark from the Islamic invasion. We knew that it was five minutes to twelve.

Therefore we decided to start an organisation whose aim was to wake up the Danes through actions and provocations, of course within the limits of the law. All in all to put the government in the devil’s dilemma, which means, no matter what they did, SIAD would have a win-and-win situation.

If they allowed our demonstrations, there would be serious trouble, and if they wouldn’t allow us to demonstrate, SIAD had proved that the freedom of speech and the right to gather in public was suppressed and eliminated.

The first demonstration took place during the Muhammad crisis, in support of the newspaper Jyllands Posten, who as you know printed the Muhammad cartoons and in support for the freedom of speech. We were 98 participants and the police showed up with around 100 persons.

SIAD decided that the following demonstrations were named “The genocider Hamas out of Scandinavia”. The title was because Hamas was recently elected as a legal government in Palestine and their main goal is to chase the Jews out of Israel and to kill the Jews all over the world. We cannot allow to shelter these kind of people in Denmark.

We held the first demonstration with this title in Århus, the second biggest town, in the ghetto Gellerup just outside the town, where we were met by 800 illegal and violent agitators, who attacked police and journalists with chrysanthemum bombs and rockets fired horizontally! The police were not able to control the mass and ordered our small demonstration, 18 peacefully, mostly elderly people waving the Danish flag, out of the area, despite that We were the legal demonstrators!

At this demonstration we showed the Danes for the first time, that there are areas in Denmark which are no longer in control, no longer Danish, areas where the freedom of speech and the right to gather in public, are eliminated. Here rules the Muslim law.

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Another devil’s dilemma we have put on the government are the charges against the Koran of contradicting the Danish constitutions, paragraphs 67 and 69. We have demanded that the imams should not be allowed to read and teach the parts of the Koran which contradict the Danish constitution. That means all the passages of clean/unclean, of believers/non-believers, and all the parts who distinguish between women and men and of course their violent agitation. However we got an answer in 14 days, perhaps because the Danish ambassador in Turkey had to explain again and again that the demand of a prohibition of certain parts of the Koran had nothing to do with the Danish government, and it only came from a small rather unknown party!

I contacted the Minister of Justice and asked the attorney, how she could answer so quickly? She must have known the Koran in advance? She answered, very honestly, that she had never read the Koran. I asked if she based her answer on the Hadith, the life and living of Muhammad. She answered: What is the Hadith?? Of course we have repeated the charges against the Koran!

We know that because Denmark is such a small homogeneous country, where the effects are felt quickly, much quicker than in bigger countries. Because of that we believe that Denmark is the perfect place to practice the anti-jihad actions and thereby affect the population, because we get a response right away. Then we can discover which actions will have the greatest affect on the people, and which actions can be copied to other places, USA, Canada, Australia and the rest of Europe.

After Anders was Michael Jensen, who is known as “the philosopher of SIAD.” Anders is from Jutland, and Michael is from Copenhagen, so the two of them serve to give SIAD a broad reach within Denmark.

His speech ranged over the philosophical and theoretical aspects of what SIAD and related groups are doing. He was passionate about what he said, and very articulate. Some excerpts:

I am a philosopher, a descendent of an old philosophical family. My family’s school of thought is a mix of protestant Christendom, Hellenic philosophy and Nordic mythology — started by the Danish philosopher Grundtvig.

It is a tradition in my family to stand up for Denmark if Denmark is in danger. As did my great-great-grandfather, and my great-grandmother. And now I suppose it is my turn.

[…]

10-15% of the Muslim population are the young, prosperous and intelligent, educated at university. They are actually the most dangerous Islamists, because they think, plan ahead and are devising intelligent plans.

50% of the Muslim population prefer Sharia Laws to Roman Law. (Surveys done in England) Here you find the foot soldiers, easy to provoke, and pretty stupid. This is actually the weak point of the Islamists, most of them do not think that much, and get easily provoked. When SIAD held its first rally in Gellerup, around 800 Jihad warriors appeared in a very short notice — firing Chrysanthemum bombs, throwing rocks and trying to get to the demonstrators of SIAD.

This was only one part of Denmark. All in all we think that there are around 30,000 jihad warriors in Denmark. And they can be rallied in a very short notice with modern telecommunication equipment.

Fortunately for us, they are willing to fight, and that will show the people and the media where they are, and how many. TV loves it, it gives a lot of very good pictures.

So to rattle the Islamists’ cage, show up and demonstrate for freedom, against the totalitarian Islamism.

[…]

We have the right to think what we want to think, how we want to think it — this is a basic premise of our faith, and we will not give up. Never.

We will not cease our freedom.

Freedom of speech is not just some idea; it is the basic principle of our faith.

Michael spoke at length about the ancient democracy of the Vikings in Iceland as described in the Icelandic Sagas. Known as the Alþing, Viking democracy was rooted in a system of local moots, each of which was called a þing. The local gatherings served as marketplaces and assemblies to discuss issues and sort out matters of law and governance. The Alþing was a larger gathering which functioned as a consensual government for all of Iceland. In many ways Iceland resembled the democracy of ancient Athens, and was the first democratic system to arise in Northern Europe, predating all the other versions by at least several hundred years.

Michael concluded with his assessment of what the Counterjihad is facing in Europe:

Basically the fight we are fighting is contest of will — it is us against the Islamists. And the ones with the strongest will, will prevail. We have the resources, the organisation, but we lack the will — if we regain the incentive to fight for our own fine culture, the fight will be over in a very short time, without much bloodshed. If we do not fight, it will come to civil war.

Our success will be defined by two things: courage and actions. The only one in this room that does not hide himself behind a funny name is Anders. And I think one of the secrets of SIAD’s success — is the courage of Anders to stand up in the open and defy the Islamists in his own name.

That works.

This is a very dangerous fight, some of us in this room will die — but that is a price we should be willing to pay, because it is better to lose your life than to lose your freedom.

But if we have the will and the courage, we will win.

After Michael finished there was some general discussion and friendly argument about the points he made. Ted, one of the Swedish participants, pointed out that democracy alone was not the answer, and that a Muslim majority was quite capable of removing the rights and freedoms of Swedes by democratic means.

Lively conversation continued for another couple of hours, with various groups of people collecting to argue and discuss the issues over glasses of excellent Danish beer, which was in plentiful supply.

The most urgent issue concerned plans for the upcoming demonstration in Brussels on September 11th. The new group that has formed in anticipation of this event, SIOE (Stop the Islamification of Europe), will be a clearinghouse for planning, and participants in our meeting were eager to set up additional meetings to formulate strategy for Brussels.

An important topic was Vigilant Freedom’s new initiative, known as the Islamification Index. This is a system designed to quantify the degree of Islamification in each country and assess the risk of encroaching sharia. Later stages of the Index process will involve planning for action designed to push back Islamification and the illiberal Multicultural system which allows it to flourish.

When the number of Vigilant Freedom members in a country is large enough to form a working group, members will construct an Islamification Index based on local conditions. Besides the United States, the current focus is on Denmark, Sweden, and Britain. Denmark’s risk level is assumed to be lower than Sweden and the UK, and it will serve as a model for action in countries which are in crisis.

Just before the meeting ended, I asked all those who were willing to have their pictures posted on the web to gather for a group photo.


Left to right: Mist (USA), Ted (Sweden), Anders Gravers (Denmark), Exile (Denmark), Skjoldungen (Denmark), Phanarath (Denmark), and Zonka (Denmark). Click the photo to see a larger version.
The meeting broke up and adjourned to the sidewalk outside, and most of the group proceeded to a bar to continue their discussions. I had to go back to Steen’s apartment to meet with him and Fjordman, so I missed the later festivities.

You’ll have to check in with some of the other bloggers for an account of went on during the wee hours. Assuming they remember, that is…

I’m saving my pennies, because I can’t wait to go back. You gotta love those Danes.